York Historic Environment Record

The kiln consisted of a central sub-circular chamber c.3m in diameter. Four flues led off the chamber, being positioned roughly equidistantly to the west, north, east and south. The east, north and west flues were elongated oval in form, and were c. 1.5m long, 1.2m wide and 0.5-0.6m deep. The southern flue was longer at 3m, but with a similar depth and width to the others – this may have been the main stoke/access hole to the chamber.
The surviving walls of the chamber consisted of roughly and horizontally coursed unbonded brick (or ‘wall tile’) on the northeast, southeast and southwest sides, with a maximum of five courses surviving at the southeast quadrant. (There was no surviving wall on the northwest side – perhaps due to robbing). The bricks were 15 x 12cm in size and varied between 3.6cm and 5.2 cm in thickness. Ad hoc structures survived at the entrances to the north, east and south flues; these were of unbonded tile at the north flue, a mixture of tile and limestone at the east flue, but more integrated limestone blocks at the south flue. These structures were presumably the remains of arches used to control the flow of air flow into the chamber.

The chamber and flues were backfilled with dumps of burnt clay, stone and pottery sherds, with some deposits of charcoal also present on the base. Some of these dumps extended into both chamber and flue. There were signs of wear to the floor of the chamber where it merged with the flues, particularly the south flue – presumably indicating raking out or cleaning. The deposits (522) below the base of the chamber were scorched to a reddish yellow hue. A deposit of dark greyish brown silty sand below 522 was undated.
All these kiln-related deposits contained pottery designated as ‘kiln product’, apart from two contexts. In addition, several deposits contained residual pottery in other fabrics.

The archaeomagnetic date for its last firing overturns the conventional assumption that oxidised pottery of the ‘Humber Ware’ type first emerged in the area of Hull and East Yorkshire. The use of brick in the kiln’s construction is also noteworthy given that brick was not widely used in York until the middle of the 14th century and was at first exclusively associated with prestigious buildings. The use of a multi-flued kiln at Marygate is also noteworthy given that such kilns at rural production centres, e.g. the East Yorkshire Humber ware kilns, and at Chilvers Coton, Warwickshire date no earlier than the 14th century. Further investigation to take place.